On Vatican I and the power of the pope, Hunwicke speaks about a controvery that followed it. German statesman Bismarck claimed that Vatican I had made the pope into an absolute monarch. Then, the German Catholic bishops - „who in those days were good, sound CAtholic bishops“ - explained in a letter that the pope was not an absolute monarch, „not a despot whose every word binds all Chritians all the time.“ The bishops put the limiations of the papal office out and everybody said that perhaps the pope won’t like that. However, Pius IX responded the German bishops: „You have got it entirely right.“ This was, as Hunwicke says with a wink, „one in the eye for Bismarck“.

Did you know that? On Vatican I and the power of the pope, Hunwicke speaks about a controvery that followed it. German statesman Bismarck claimed that Vatican I had made the pope into an absolute monarch. Then, the German Catholic bishops - „who in those days were good, sound CAtholic bishops“ - explained in a letter that the pope was not an absolute monarch, „not a despot whose every word binds all Chritians all the time.“ The bishops put the limiations of the papal office out and everybody said that perhaps the pope won’t like that. However, Pius IX responded the German bishops: „You have got it entirely right.“ This was, as Hunwicke says with a wink, „one in the eye for Bismarck“.